Originally Posted By gardenrooms I've been a slacker, not doing my research for our upcoming trip! Can anyone fill me in on how Early Entry is now working? We'll be there between Chrstmas and New Years. I don't want to miss a single minute of prime time! I had thought only FL rides opened up, but now I am hearing is it like it used to be with some of the big rides also open. Also is it only on certain days? Also (I had written before about this) does anyone have any more advice for the Riverside Fantasmic! seating? Thanks for any help and Merry Christmas!
Originally Posted By TheHoop Garden, I too, have often wondered how early park entry works..I'll watch this topic closely; as for Fantasmic seating, here's what we did and it worked beautifully, we had the best dead on center seats, thus the show was completley different. Please sign the waiver at the bottom of this post as I cannot guarrantee that it will work for you- At around 4:30 - 5 pm we marked our area by putting down our extra gear and then went on to do other rides, when walking by on our way to another ride, etc. I would walk by and check our stuff, just to make an appearance-as other peoples gear had started to arrive as well, but to also to make sure no one altered our boundaries. I even checked with the Fantasmic CMs to make sure they don't 'move' stuff-as they often do (strollers, line blockage on parade routes, etc). They said it wasn't a problem. Bottom line: we put our stuff, front and center, against the iron fence right down in front of the sound console. It was awesome, by sitting dead on center I saw effects I've never seen before. In fact, I believe there were effects designed with this in mind. No spoilers here, You'll have to see if you notice them for yourself. Plus, your limited peripheral vision makes you only see what your supposed to see at the right time, versus a global wide scope view. It was worth it. Unfortunately, I do not recall how early we got back to our gear, we judged that by how big the early bird group was getting, etc. And then we recruited a volunteer from our group to stay with the stuff and did that whole thing.. I hope this helps, I hope you are able to get great seats at least once b/c the show is awesome from front and center. Please report back to LP what happens.
Originally Posted By gardenrooms Thanks TheHoop. Now can anyone help us on Early Entry? You guys always know more than we'll be able to glean from any official source! I realized after I wrote this I should have put it in Trip Planning, which I'll also do now. We're heading down tonight - driving all night. Can't wait (to get there, the driving I could do without as I'm sure I'll be stuck doing most of it!)
Originally Posted By knoxvelour The driving there isn't so bad, it's when the kids want to go on Autopia that it gets frustrating!
Originally Posted By karlg According to the Disney web site, it is available on: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday one hour before the normal opening time. If you are staying at a Disney hotel, it you can go on any day of your stay. If you have a park hopper (bought in advance or from a good-neighbor hotel) then you get to pick one day. You should get there at least 1/2 hour and more like 1 hour before this time of year. If you want to do Fantasyland on this trip, go there during early entry as it will be difficult during normal hours and they don't have fastpass. The place should be a madhouse this time of year so good luck. Make sure to take full advantage of Fast Pass as well. As far as I know, Roger Rabbit and Grizzley River Rapids have fastpasses that are not "connected" to the others so you can get a FP for them and still get them for other attraction. Also while the FP say you have to return in a given time window, I think you can still come back any time after the window starts. The trick is to get fastpasses early and then use them later. When the parks are very busy, you really need to watch the F.P. A general strategy is to send a runner to get F.P. for Splash (as early in the day it will have a short comeback time but will sell out early in the day unless it is cold) and then get Indian Jones or Space Mountain when the Spash window comes up (and you can get another F.P., then get another when the next window comes up. As you are collecting F.P.'s then go on non-F.P. attractions early in the day and then go on the F.P. attractions with your F.P. as the park gets crowded. If you don't take full advantage of F.P. and get to the park early, then don't expect to go on many attractions this time of year. You can bet there are a lot of locals there taking full advantage of the F.P. system for all it is worth.
Originally Posted By Kayoss If you're staying on Disney property (or non-Disney good partner hotels) and have a Premium AP, can you still get early entry? It would seem unfair (as long as you're a hotel guest) to be denied early entry. It's an AP's vacation too.
Originally Posted By karlg Last time I looked (over a year ago), the early entry is available to Disneyland owned Hotel guests regardless of their ticket (in otherwords it is part of the room cost) for the length of their stay (which I think is considered from the day you check in to the day you check out). There is an early entry option with the multi-day passports good for 1 day. This passport is available only online and through "good neighbor hotels" (and least is used to be at the local "tourist" center), but not at the Disneyland front gate. I don't think any of these options help an AP (of any class) staying at a good neighbor hotel.
Originally Posted By dlkozy >>>"If you are staying at a Disney hotel, it you can go on any day of your stay..."<<< That EE is offered-which is what I am sure that you meant.
